Parachute with variable surface



' March 20,1945. Us, 2,371,898

PARACHUTE WITH VARIABLE SURFACE Filed June 12, 1940 Fig? m in w . Patented Mar. 20, 1945 UNITED 2.371.898 ranacnurn w'u'n VARIABLE SURFACE Giuseppe Lisl, Spoleto, Italy; vested in the Alien Property Custodian Application June 12, 1940, Serial No. 340,196

In Italy October 12, 1939 lclaim.

Object of the present invention is the realisation of a parachute allowing: 1st the jump of persons or drop of things at a higher speed than the one considered till now as a maximum in the normal use of a parachute: 2d the possibility for the flyer (or airman) to vary at his will and by a simple manipulation the descent-speed.

The difliculty till now met with in the use of a parachute in the case of jumps at a high speed consists above all in the high value of the snatch effort a man has to endure. In order to avoid'this inconvenience, in the parachutes now used with but one canopy there is no other means but to reduce the surface of the canopy with the inconvenience however of increasing the normal descent speed.

As to the possibility of varying at will the descent speed the solutions till now suggested have not been adopted as they were not practical and too complicated. In the parachute with a variable surface according to the present invention there is oiTered the realisation of a practical simple solution or the problems above mentioned.

In the accompanying drawing there are shown by way of example two explicative figures.

In Fig. 1 the parachute is illustrated when totally opened that is during an ordinary vertical descent.

Fig. 2 shows the moment of opening when starting from an aeroplane at a high speed.

Asjilustrated in Fig. 1 the parachute comprises a canopy A and an annular sloping portion B with no solution of continuity.

In the juncture C of the sloping portion B and calotte A the nonresilient cords are united in D from where by means of a nonelastic supporting system L, which may contain a device for the met by the slope B at the starting moment a1- lowing said slope to be temporary tilted till the position R is taken.

When the elements have once reached this p sition the whole resistance or the first air shock is supported by the surface of the canopy alone and consequently by a part of the total surface of the parachute.

While the system formed by man and parachute gradually sinks down towards the normal descent speed the resilient sections S return to the position shown in Fig. 1 so that the slope B also opens in its whole surface ofiering the maximum resistance in order to obtain a descent at an easy and secure landing speed.

The tilting on high of the slope B produced in the case above mentioned by the aerodynamic resistance may be also obtained in any-moment whatever of the normal descent whatever may be the proportion of the tilting by a simple hand control device to be. operated at will by the airman.

According to the proportion the tilting has been obtained. there will be also obtained a smaller resistant surface and consequently a greater falling speed.

Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I claim is:

A parachute comprising, a main canopy for providing support for an object under all circumstances, a plurality of non-elastic rigging lines attached at spaced points above the periphery of said main canopy and providing a nonelastic attachment between the canopy and the object being supported, an outer canopy portion in the form of an annular peripheria1 skirt secured at its inner periphery to the outer periph- Patent no; 2,571,898.

m'mrcmm 0F comcnon,

v March 20 19l|.5. GIUSEPP'E L181. 7

It is hereby certified that error appear's'in the printed ape' ciqieation of the above numbered'patent requiring eon-action as follows: Page 1, see dndcolumn, Iinei l, for "above" reed --ab out--; and that the said Letters Patent shmild be read with this correctiph therein that the same may vconform to the record. of the case in the Patent Office.

Signed and'e ealed this 5th qty of June, A. n. 1915.

' Leslie Frazer (Seal) Acting Cdmniseioner of Patents. 

